Google Hires Apple Inc. (AAPL) Chairman For The New Health Venture

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Chairman Arthur D. Levinson will take up a new role in Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)-backed health focus company Calico. Google announced that it will support this new company, which will be involved in controlling aging and health issues. Arthur D. Levinson was a former Google board member and current chairman of Apple.

Google targets basic issues of human life

Calico is the new company that will primarily combat age-related health issues. Levinson, by degree, is a biochemist and previously was the CEO and then chairman of biotechnology firm Genentech. He will make founding investments in the company, and will hold the post of CEO.

Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Larry Page, earlier detailed in TIME magazine, states Calico could be the most ambitious project for Google. He says that plans for Calico are presently in process, but the company is looking forward to extracting ways to treat aging and thus increase human life. Through Calico, Google wants to address the most basic facts of life: sickness and death.

Apple’s Tim Cook also excited on the project

As per the announcement, Levinson will keep working at Apple in the same post, and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) chief Tim Cook was excited about the project. “For too many of our friends and family, life has been cut short, or the quality of their life is too often lacking,” Cook said.

Apple and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) have been cut-throat rivals who often stand against each other in the consumer tech market place. However, when it comes to a social cause, both the companies get along well together. For instance, in 2008, both Google and Apple jointly stood against California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in the state.

Lucy P. Marcus, CEO of Marcus Venture Consulting, said that there is something about this that feels uncomfortable. According to Marcus, if the vision of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Calico are poles apart from each other, such that there is no overlap between the companies, then it may not cause conflict of interest, but if the conflict occurs, Levinson will have to leave Apple’s board room during those discussions.